Christian Education Publications PO Box A287 Sydney South NSW 1235 Australia Ph: +61 2 8268 3344 Fax: +61 2 8268 3357 Email: sales@cepstore.com.au Website: www.cepstore.com.au Published July 2014 Copyright © Tim Clemens 2014 This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism and review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without the express permission of the publisher. Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc. National Library of Australia ISBN 978-1-925041-37-8 Author—Tim Clemens Managing editor—Julie Firmstone Theological editor—Tess Holgate Design—Bethany Abbottsmith
HARD CORE CHRISTIANS
CONTENTS Lesson 1
Faith in Jesus Ephesians 2:8–9
4
Lesson 2
Living like Jesus Titus 2:11–14 12
Lesson 3
Praying through Jesus Philippians 4:6–7
21
Lesson 4
Hearing from Jesus 2 Timothy 3:14–17
30
Lesson 5
Meeting with other Jesus followers Hebrews 10:24–25 40
LIVING LIKE JESUS HAVING PUT HIS OR HER FAITH IN JESUS, A CHRISTIAN PUTS THAT FAITH INTO ACTION AND STARTS TO LIVE LIKE JESUS. THE REST OF A CHRISTIAN’S LIFE IS SPENT GROWING MORE AND MORE LIKE JESUS.
Titus 2:11–14
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. 11
SIMON SAYS Who is your role model? • Why do you look up to them? • How do you try to imitate them?
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from the passage 1. Write Titus 2:11–14 in your own words: __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________
2. Who or what has appeared that brings salvation to all men? a. Jesus b. Titus
c. Grace d. Redemption
3. This (your answer to question 2) teaches us to say ‘no’ to some
things, and ‘yes’ to others. Cross out those things that Paul says Christians are taught to say ‘no’ to and circle those they are taught to say ‘yes’ to. Leave blank those that do not explicitly appear on Paul’s list.
ho m ew o rk u ng o d line s s a lco ho l s e lf- co ntro l w icke dne s s
church uprightness obedience worldly passions friendship purity 13
4. Complete the sentence: According to Paul, Christians are to live godly lives while they wait for ___________. a. Jesus to return b. the world to rot
c. people to imitate them d. things to get easier
5. Why did Jesus ‘give himself’ (die on the cross) for us? a. To deliver (redeem) us from all wickedness. b. To purify a people for himself.
c. So that we might be eager to do what is good. d. All of the above.
6. Fill in the missing words using the words provided. hates attractive world good
teaches cost created living
passions forgive joyful save
The central idea of this short passage is that God’s grace towards us (in sending Jesus to die for us) actually ________ us how we should live as his people. Firstly, it teaches us to say ‘no’ to the things of this ________. When we understand that our ungodliness and worldly _________ (our selfishness, anger, lust, pride, etc.) meant that Jesus had to die in order to __________ us, we don’t want to do those things anymore. Why? Because it _________ Jesus his life! Since we now know how much God _______ those things and how costly they are to _______, we should try to say ‘no’ to them. Secondly, it teaches us to say ‘yes’ to ________ like Jesus. The life of Jesus teaches us how we should live. Jesus was ___________, peaceful, patient, kind, gentle, good and self-controlled. Above all, he loved others. That’s not only an ___________ way to live; it’s also the way we were __________ to live! With God’s help, Christians should be eager to say ‘yes’ to living like Jesus. Doing _________ is one of the things that Jesus wants to mark out his people.
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1. What are some ungodly actions or worldly passions that you think God wants you to say ‘no’ to? List five things from your own life. 1. __________________________________________________________________ 2. __________________________________________________________________ 3. __________________________________________________________________ 4. __________________________________________________________________ 5. __________________________________________________________________ The Bible makes it clear that God hates our sin; it is incredibly offensive to him. However, because God loved us so much, he was willing to send his Son Jesus to the cross in order to deal with it. That was both a loving and costly thing for him to do. 2. How does the knowledge that dealing with sin is costly to God influence the way that you think about the ungodly actions and worldly passions you listed above? _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________
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3. Can you think of anyone whom you would describe as ‘self-controlled’, ‘upright’ and ‘godly’? Identify two things about that person’s life that are attractive to you and briefly explain why.
PERSON ONE
PERSON TWO
1
1
2
2
WHY THESE THINGS ARE ATTRACTIVE
WHY THESE THINGS ARE ATTRACTIVE
4. Christians should be eager to do what is good. Can you think of an action or series of actions that would allow you to ‘do good’ to a friend or family member? Write down two things that you can realistically accomplish in the next week—and remember to actually do them! _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ Christian people hope for and eagerly await the appearance of their God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. This is not necessarily because they don’t like this world or are unhappy, but because they are looking forward to the time when Jesus will make everything right. Only then will there be harmony in heaven and on earth. Only then will there be no more tears, death, crying or pain (cf. Revelation 21:4). Only then will the world be perfect. 16
There is nothing wrong with hoping for other things in this world as well (like a spouse, good health or a long life), but sometimes these desires can crowd out or squash our desire for Jesus to return. That’s a problem. A good clue that you have things round the wrong way is when you start hoping that Jesus won’t return too soon. 5. What things in your own life are you tempted to put ahead of the hope for Jesus to return? _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ A helpful way to protect ourselves against desiring things of this world more than the return of Jesus is to give thanks to God for those things. This reminds us that all good gifts come from God, but they are not as good as the One who gave them to us. 6. Write a brief prayer thanking God for his good gifts to you and asking him to help you live an upright and self-controlled life while you wait for Jesus to return.
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task one:
Imagine that a friend asks you, ‘Why do Christians always try to do good stuff? Are they just trying to earn their way into heaven?’ In the space provided, write down how you might answer that question.
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task two:
In Galatians 5:22–23, Paul says, ‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’. In other words, these are some of the ‘good works’ or ‘good virtues’ that ought to characterise God’s people.
In teams of two, choose one ‘fruit’ and come up with a skit in which one of your characters has the opportunity to demonstrate this fruit by doing a good deed for the other character. For example, one character might annoy the other by flicking the back of their ears, but the other manages to remain self-controlled, politely asking them to stop it.
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EAGER TO DO WHAT IS GOOD It is not uncommon for people to think of Christians as goody-two-shoes who never get to have any fun. This idea is wrong for at least two reasons. Firstly, Jesus is quite clear that the best life is the one lived in relationship with him (see John 10:10). Now this doesn’t necessarily mean that Christians will always have fun, but the best life—the one you were created to live—can only be lived in relationship with Jesus. So it’s just not right to think of Christians as a repressed group of killjoys. They may not do everything that others do, but that doesn’t mean they’re boring! Rather, it just means that they believe God when he says those things are not good for them. Secondly, when somebody puts their trust in Jesus, God gives them his Spirit. This Spirit will then begin to transform that person from the inside out until the worldly passions that once captivated them begin to seem repulsive. Instead, God’s Spirit begins to produce fruit like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self-control in the life of a Christian (see Galatians 5:22–23). This fruit may not become evident all at once and we may display some of these virtues more than others, but the end result is a person eager to do what is good. Of course you will never be perfect, but by God’s Spirit you can be a new person.
Use the letters below to fill in the blanks and construct the fallen phrase. Hint: It’s one of the core things that identify people who trust in Jesus.
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